834 



VERMONT. 



mitting the appointments to party bosses, in super- 

 seding faithful officers not justly chargeable with 

 offensive partisanship by active and offensive Demo- 

 cratic partisans, and in removing honest, experienced 

 and respected officers to make places for saloon-keep- 

 ers ana Democratic strikers, has been an absolute 

 burlesque of civil-service reform, and deserves the 

 condemnation of all who desire a clean, efficient, and 

 trustworthy public service. 



That we deplore the multiform evils of intemper- 

 ance 5 we reaffirm the position of the Ecpublican party 

 in this State upon that question, and declare in our 

 opinion the prohibition of the liquor-traffic, as ex- 

 pressed in our statutes, etc., be and should remain the 

 settled policy of the State. 



The Democratic State Convention met in 

 the same town on July 22, and nominated 

 Stephen 0. Shurtleff for Governor, P. M. 

 Meldon for Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas H. 

 Chubb for Treasurer, Wallace W. Rider for 

 Secretary of State, and J. A. Wilder for Audi- 

 tor. The following resolutions, among others, 

 were adopted : 



"We demand the protection of the dairy and other 

 interests of the State by the enactment of such laws 

 as will prevent the adulteration of food and the sale 

 of oleomargarine or any spurious compound as butter. 

 We favor such legislation as shall control the traffic 

 in intoxicating liquors and increase the revenue rather 

 than the burden of taxation, and, though opposed to 

 sumptuary laws, we demand the enforcement of ex- 

 isting laws until repealed. We denounce the Repub- 

 lican party of Vermont for its shameless hypocrisy 

 and demagoguism in enacting liquor laws they do not 

 intend to enforce, and while in power will not enforce, 

 and in embodying prohibitory resolutions _ in their 

 platform simply for the purpose of deceiving those 

 who are honestly prohibitionists when they do not 

 mean to carry them into effect. 



The Prohibition State Convention was held 

 in Burlington on July 21. The following ticket 

 was nominated : For Governor, H. M. Seeley, 

 of Middlebury ; Lieutenant-Governor, W. L. 

 Pearl, of St. Johnsbury; Treasurer, C. W. 

 Wyman, of Brattleboro' ; Secretary of State, 

 George L. Story, of St. Albans Bay ; Auditor 

 of Accounts, Levi S. Lewis, of Bennington. 



The Greenback Labor Party held a State 

 Convention at Essex Junction on July 28, and 

 made nominations as follows: For Governor, 

 T. B. Smith, of Stowe; Lieutenant-Governor, 

 A. F. Brown, of Rutland; Treasurer, Fletcher 

 Tarbell, of S want on; Secretary of State, A. J. 

 Merrill, of St. Albans ; Auditor, E. B. Sawyer, 

 of Hyde Park. 



The election on September 7 resulted in the 

 choice of the Republican candidates. The 

 following is the vote for Governor : Republi- 

 can, 37,709; Democratic, 17,187; Prohibition, 

 1,541; Greenback, 644; scattering, 18. The 

 Legislature is constituted as follows: Senate, 

 29 Republicans and 1 Democrat; House, 206 

 Republicans, 29 Democrats, and 4 Independ- 

 ents of different shades. Two Republican 

 members of Congress were elected 



Legislative Session. The Legislature met on 

 October 6, and adjourned on November 24. 

 Among the more important acts of the session 

 are the following : 



The creation of a railroad commission ; incorpora- 

 tion of the towns of Proctor and West Rutland, taken 



from Rutland ; abolishing the office of highway sur- 

 veyor and making the highway tax at least 15 per 

 cent, to be collected in money ; raising the salaries of 

 judges of the Supreme Court from $2,500 to $3,000 ; 

 making $10 the lowest limit for trustee process ; ap- 

 propriations of $10,000 for a soldiers' home, $9.000 

 for monuments and grounds on the battle-field of 

 Gettysburg, $2,500 for improved arms, etc.. for the 

 National Guard ? and $5,000 for repairs in the State 

 Prison ; giving justices of the. peace authority to com- 

 pel intoxicated persons to make disclosure ; providing 

 imprisonment on third conviction for intoxication; 

 prohibiting judges of the Supreme Court from acting 

 as auditors and referees ; prohibiting proprietors and 

 keepers of hotels, restaurants, etc., from furnishing 

 their patrons with imitation butter, unless they pla- 

 card ''oleomargarine sold here" in the dining or 

 lunch rooms ; providing that wife or minor child of a 

 person confined in jail for intoxication may collect $2 

 a day from parties selling the liquor, or owning the 

 building in which the liquor was sold, to such person ; 

 establishing a State agricultural experiment station; 

 appropriating $10,000 for Bennington battle monu- 

 ment ; and establishing a State Board of Health. 



On October 19 George F. Edmunds, Repub- 

 lican, was re-elected United States Senator by 

 a vote of 29 to 1 in the Senate, and 198 to 

 36 in the House. On the 20th the Judges of 

 the Supreme Court were re-elected in joint 

 session of the two houses. On November 4 

 Justus Dartt was, in joint session, re-elected 

 Superintendent of Education. On the 23d the 

 Governor appointed, as members of the newly 

 created Railroad Commission, ex - Gov. Sam- 

 uel E. Pingree, of Hartford ; Col. T. 0. Fletch- 

 er, of St. Johnsbury ; and Henry L. Clark, of 

 Castleton. 



Finances. From the report of the Auditor we 

 find the sum of the orders issued from his office 

 for the biennial term of 1884-'86 to be $639,- 

 102.91. At the close of the fiscal year, July 

 31, 1886, the State liabilities were as follow, 

 to wit : 



Due towns, United States surplus fund $13.897 62 



Due soldiers, unpaid balances 8,557 46 



Due Agricultural College fund (represented by 



State bonds falling due June 1, 1890, interest 



payable setni-annually) 135,500 00 



Balance due of appropriation for State Library 



building 22,706 55 



Balance due for construction of North Hero and 



Alburgh Bridge, under appropriation of 1884. . 19,062 50 



Total $199,224 13 



And the resources are : 



Cash on hand and in banks $160,97497 



Estimated amount tax from corporations for 



1886 200,000 00 



Estimated proceeds from sale of balance of 



Huntington fund securities . 15,000 00 



Total $375,974 97 



The Tax Commissioner reports that the taxes 

 assessed under the corporation tax law in 1884 

 amounted to $205,221.76, and in 1885, $200,- 

 685. TO; and from the report of the Treasurer it 

 appears, of the taxes assessed in 1884 there 

 was paid into the treasury $205,225.33, and of 

 those assessed in 1885 there was paid $200,- 

 685.70. Of the amount for 1885, $1,401.08 

 was paid by express companies, $1,100.57 by 

 telephone companies, $1,407.97 by steamboat 

 companies, $5,625.34 by the National Car Com- 

 pany, $87,445.99 by railroads, $07,936.73 by 



